


The Effects of Shore Leave and Sunshine

by BenevolentErrancy



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Misunderstandings, Shore Leave, Sunburn, excessive and entirely unnecessary drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7322725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BenevolentErrancy/pseuds/BenevolentErrancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been Liara's idea for them to take their shore leave on a literal shore - it had been years since she had last visited the beach, and the sun, sand, and waves seemed like the perfect way for the crew to unwind. When Shepard collapses dead away in the sand, covered only in a mysterious, red burn, Liara is struck by the guilt that it may in fact  be her fault if Shepard dies out here...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Effects of Shore Leave and Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> yeah this is ridiculous, unrepentant degrees of inter-species confusion and melodrama
> 
> A fill for a kink meme prompt:  
> Being a ginger, FShep gets really bad sunburns if she stays out for to long without sunscreen. Like huge puss filled blisters, skin peeling all over the place and so on. Liara isn't very well versed on gingers staying out in the sun, and she assumes Shepard is about to die.  
> (full prompt: http://masseffectkink.livejournal.com/9521.html?thread=45257009#t45257009)

 

“I don't understand what is with aliens and their obsession with water,” Garrus grumbled, not for the first time. “I mean, no, salarians I understand. They get a pass because they're _amphibious_. The rest of you though...” He gave group a glare that he hoped contained the exact level of his exasperation with these aliens.

Shepard just nudged him playfully though. “Don't be so pouty. Besides, it was Liara's turn to chose what we do for shore leave. Everyone loves the beach, Garrus, you'll have fun.” Shepard definitely was already. It had been years since she had visited a beach and today was perfect for it. This planet was a temperate garden world with limited colonization so far, and almost nothing on this hemisphere, so there was nothing to interrupt their well-earned day off except for the warm breeze and skittering wildlife that hadn't lingered long enough as they approached to be anything more than a shuffling bush. According to EDI there was little to no large predator activity here and they'd set up electronic defences around the parameter of the beach they were planning to use to dissuade anything that might decide to investigate the strange new animals on their planet. And with a gravitational field just shy of Earth's Shepard was feeling loose-limbed, warm, and more relaxed than she had in a while.

“Fine,” huffed Garrus. “But when I have sand wedged under every plate you're helping me pick it out– _oof._ ”

James had strolled up and given Garrus's back a companionable slap that had almost sent Garrus, who was already a little unsteady in the sand, tumbling forward.

“Don't worry about it,” James said. “You help me lotion my back and I'll help you with your sand thing.”

“Obviously you haven't seen the talons he has if you want him sensuously rubbing your back,” cut in Ashley.

“ _Hey_ , if you're jealous I'm sure we can arrange something,” he said with a wink.

“In your dreams, Vega.” Turning away from the men, Ashley made to ask Shepard if she'd mind helping Ashley reaching her back in exchange for the same, but found that the Commander had already wandered further along the beach, hand in hand with Liara, to find a place to set up their towels and the couple cases they'd brought to carry supplies and food. Not particularly concerned – Shepard was a big girl who was capable of getting her own lotion on or getting her girlfriend to do it for her – Ashley shrugged and returned to where Garrus was being harassed by the others.

“What, turians don't like water?” asked Grunt, who'd been travelling with them for the past few months after Wrex had given them leave to “take Junior here off my hands”. Grunt had certainly seemed to have been going stir-crazy with all the rebuilding efforts on Tuchanka and had been more than happy to hop back aboard the Normandy.

“You wouldn't like water either if you could get a cowl full of it the first time you slip and had approximately zero buoyancy,” said Garrus, rather defensively.

Shepard meanwhile was doing her best to ignore the antics of her crew that were going on behind her. If she showed she was paying attention she might be obliged as commander to mediate whatever disaster was inevitably brewing and honestly right now all she wanted to do was collapse into the hot sand and have a drink. Preferably with Liara curled up right next to her, with no world-saving or politics or Broker business to get in the way. Right now it was only Shepard and Liara (alright, _and_ a crew of overgrown, well-armed children) and looking at Liara now, with her joyful expression, wearing a light, fluttering beach robe, and with skin made so blue by the sun that it put even the ocean to shame, Shepard couldn't feel more blessed.

“So why the beach?” she asked as Liara critically examined one patch of sand compared to another. She must have found it unfavourable because her hand was winding back up in Shepard's and they were walking further down the beach again.

“We just always seem to be in the thick of things,” Liara said. “Even with the War over, there's whole civilizations to rebuild, wreckages to clear, new gangs budding up to take advantage... and even when we're not shooting something down then we're either in the middle of clean-up or politics! I sort of missed the days on the SR-1, where there'd be only three of us in that awful little mako driving around some isolated planet to scrounge resources. At the time I don't think I found it tedious, but over the past few years... I keep thinking back to it and it all seemed so _peaceful_. Like being back on a dig site again.”

“Yeah, well, almost anything is peaceful after spending a year of running around non-stop with Reapers breathing down the back of your neck,” said Shepard, a little stiffly. “Let's set the towels down here.”

It wasn't the best spot – probably not as nice as the last spot Liara rejected – with two many little out crops of rock, but Liara accepted the change of topic without comment. Even with the Reapers long gone, Shepard could be touchy at best about talking about them. Sometimes she'd be laughing and joking about the War like it had been just another day in the office, other times she would retreat into old memories, becoming distant and haunted looking until she was drawn back to the here and now. Work helped with that, which is one of the reason she was even on active field duty again. Liara felt a little guilty for bringing it up when they were supposed to be on shore leave, but the dark tendrils of memories didn't seem to linger this time, probably helped by the fact that they were both soon distracted by the sudden shouting of a turian in distress.

Looking up from their wrestling match with the towels and wind, they could see exactly what had finally spurred Garrus' into call “Shepard! A little back up would be appreciated!” across the beach.

Garrus had been cornered by Grunt, who was approaching the turian with wide arms and a mischievous expression. Garrus feigned from one side to another, looking for an out around Grunt, but a krogan became a barricade with very little effort and turian feet, while unparalleled when it came for running along solid, flat surfaces, were not made for finding traction in the sand. A little ways off to the side, Ashley, James, Joker, Tali, and EDI were watching, occasionally calling out encouraging if not particularly helpful advice to Garrus.

“Just get into the water, Garrus,” Tali told him, as the turian made a desperate jump away from Grunt. “He'll leave you alone, then.”

“Because he'll have _won_ then,” shouted Garrus.

“Actually,” said Liara, “I wouldn't mind going swimming myself, if we're all set up here.”

So Liara carefully took off the beach robe she'd been wearing, folded it up on her towel, and started towards the water, immediately and unavoidably drawing Shepard's eyes along with her.

“Shepard, _please_ , you wouldn't abandon me too, would you?” Garrus called. “Not like these traitors.”

“You're a big boy, Garrus, I'm sure you can work it out,” Shepard called back without turning around as she ran out after Liara. She was a little busy with other important things at the moment, like watching the asari in front of her who was, it should be noted, currently wearing a striking, human-style swimsuit.

Liara gave a little shriek as she splashed into the surf and Shepard didn't blame her – her breath caught at the sudden icy chill of the ocean at her ankles, but it turned into a laugh when Liara cried out again as Shepard's splashing sent water up her calf. Spinning, Liara turned and caught Shepard's hands, tugging her further into the water, and grinned when she saw where Shepard's eyes were wandering to.

“Am I right to assume the swimwear was a good purchase?” she asked.

“You could be right to assume that, yes,” said Shepard. “Shadowbrokers, you don't miss a thing, do you?”

“Believe it or not, I didn't have to use a single Broker resource to figure out that you might enjoy this.”

“I'm that transparent, am I,” grinned Shepard. “So does this mean I should be getting an asari-style swimsuit for you?”

Liara's eyes dropped then, sweeping across Shepard's body before jumping up; despite her best efforts, a blush was creeping up Liara's cheeks, making Shepard only grin wider.

“That's quite alright,” Liara assured her. “I have to say, I'm learning to appreciate how optional humans seem to consider clothing while in the water.”

“So definitely not a turian swimsuit then.”

Liara snorted, and both turned to look at where Grunt was storming into the water with a hollering Garrus on his shoulder. If you were being generous, you might say turian swimwear looked something like a diving suit, covering them almost entirely from foot to neck – if you were being accurate, you might say it looked more like full-fledged enviro-suit, especially given the way the material was pulled taunt across his cowl to his neck, covering the usual deep bowl-shape of his collar and instead making him look like he'd gotten his head caught in a tent and rather than ask for help just pretend it was intentional. It kept out the water though, Garrus had huffed when Tali had first caught sight of him and immediately started crying with laughter.

“You okay out there?” Shepard called just as, with a heave, Grunt sent Garrus flying out into the ocean with a shriek and splash.

Garrus bobbed up to the surface with a gasp and splutter, coughing up water. “No thanks to you,” he grumbled as he paddled awkwardly. Garrus hadn't been lying about turians being bad swimmers. Fortunately, besides for keeping water from filling his cowl, the swimsuit and its neck tarp formed a pocket of air that helped Garrus keep his head above the water, like an in-built waterwing for his neck, so Shepard wasn't too concerned that anything more than his pride would be hurt out there.

“Well you kids have fun,” she called flippantly, before turning back to Liara.

The water was cold enough that it took a while for both of them to finally get fully wet and in the end it only happened because Shepard found her reserve, the sort that had helped her face down charging Brutes, and dived in. When Liara didn't immediately follow, Shepard then sent a wave of biotics through the water to knock her feet out from under her. They had quickly warmed up after that as Shepard dived and swam deeper, trying to get away from Liara who was, in retaliation, using biotics to send cascading waves out at Shepard. After a while though they had both simply taken to lying on their backs, floating and bobbing in the gentle waves.

“My mother use to take me to the beach every year when I was little,” Liara said after a while of floating in silence and enjoying the sun. “I grew up only about an hour away from one of Thessia's smaller seas, but Mother was usually too busy to take me. I used to love our annual summer trips though. Mother knew another Matriach who had a summer estate along the coast, and we'd get to stay there for a couple weeks, and I'd spend nearly every day out on the beach. Just a little ways off the beach itself there were these great mudflats. Oh, Mother would get _so_ exasperated with me. Instead of going to the sand, I would go up there to play, taking my books with me so I could try to build prothean temples and palaces, based on the speculations in the texts. 'Why can't you just play in the sand like other children,' she'd ask me, but you couldn't carve little details into sand like you could with mud. …I took it so seriously at the time, I was so determined to become an archeologist, but looking back... well, it was very childish, wasn't it? From what Javik's told me, the books were almost hilariously inaccurate, but still, even with physical ruins to study, but, well... It was my childhood.”

“That is _adorable_ ,” said Shepard, shifting so that she was no longer floating on her back but dogpaddling instead, so she could see Liara's peaceful face as she stared up at the sky and reminisced. It wasn't often that Liara spoke about her childhood or her mother, and Shepard treasured being shown these little bits and pieces of Liara's past. She also knew how melancholy Liara could become, thinking about her mother or her own perceived failures, so Shepard kept talking, not giving her a chance to get stuck thinking about it. “So what I'm hearing is that I should suggest a sand castle building contest and make sure you're on my team.”

Shepard knew she had succeeded when Liara laughed. “I wouldn't go that far. I said I liked to build them, _not_ that I was good at them.”

“No, it'll be great. We can make it a sand _prothean_ castle building contest, you'll be great. Too bad Javik's not here, he could judge the winner for us.”

Liara snorted at that thought. “Oh yes, he'd love _that_. I can hear the derision from here.”

Chuckling, Shepard gave Liara a push, insisting that he would _definitely_ love it, when did Javik ever like to miss an opportunity to poke fun at the “primitives”, when she noticed her arm for the first time. Among the freckles, it was getting quite pink. She'd been so eager to get to shore leave that she hadn't even thought about sunscreen; she'd better get back to the shore and deal with that or she'd be regretting it soon.

“Hey, I'm going to head back in, okay?”

“Already? Then again, I suppose you humans do have that thing were your skin gets wrinkly if you stay in water for a long time.” Shepard rolled her eyes – Liara had been simultaneously fascinated and horrified the first time they'd stayed in the hot tub at the apartment for too long. “I think I'll stay out just a bit longer though,” Liara added. “I'll come in soon.”

“Sure, I'll call you when we're ready to have lunch,” said Shepard, slowly swimming back towards the shore.

Getting out of the cool water was a shock though, the heat of the beach seeming even warmer than when they had first arrived, and it settled on Shepard's shoulders like a blanket. Strolling up to where the towels and supplies had been settled she considered her arms again. It didn't seem quite so bad now that she wasn't in the water, and she was still too wet to put any lotion on; she'd have to dry off first. Best way to do that, she figured, was just to lie in the sun for a couple minutes. With how warm it was she'd be dry in no time. So dropping down onto her stomach, feeling the heat of the sand radiate through the towel, Shepard lay her head down to wait. And wait. And slowly the warmth and comfort of hearing the chatter of her friends not far off was enough that she found her eyes lids drooping, drooping, until she simply couldn't keep them open any longer.

-

Liara ended up staying out in the water much longer than she had intended. At first she had simply been caught up in the lazy pleasure of floating on the waves, but soon after Ashley, James, Tali, Steve, and Grunt had decided to play a human game that James was describing to them that seemed to involve bouncing a large, inflated ball between two teams in an effort to make the other team drop the ball into the water. The group had tried to recruit Garrus as their sixth member, but he had stripped his swimwear down to his waist and was basking in the sun where the towels had been set up, resolutely refusing to go anywhere near the water again, thank you, and EDI was keeping Joker company in the sand. So Liara had happily filled in the remaining spot, teaming up with Ashley and Tali against the men. It didn't take long for what had started off as a fun, silly game to become competitive to the extreme, including a loud argument between the humans over where a hypothetical “net” was, and whether or not Liara should be allowed to use her biotics. Teams shuffled multiple times, especially after Grunt left to see about food, and by the end it turned more into a game of “piggy in the middle” (as Steve put it – Liara wasn't at all sure what a “piggy” was supposed to be besides, apparently, her) with the others trying to keep the ball away from her and her biotics. By the time everyone had been sufficiently exhausted, Joker and Grunt had gotten a little fire started and had nearly finished cooking the food they'd brought down from the ship.

“Hey, Liara, think you can find the Commander?” Joker asked. “Tell her if she doesn't get here soon Grunt's going to eat literally everything and she'll be stuck with nutripaste and field rations.”

“Has she not turned up yet?” Liara asked, but started wandering towards where the towels had been laid out without waiting for an answer.

Usually Shepard couldn't hardly be convinced to stay still even if you threatened to lock her in her cabin – honestly Liara was a little surprised that Shepard hadn't turned up at the game they'd been having. Then again, perhaps she had taken a leaf out of Garrus's book and decided to take a nap in the sun. Well, once she'd passed the supplies they'd stacked up by the towels and which had been blocking the view of them from where the fire had been set up, she realized that that must have indeed been what happened. Garrus was sitting on his towel, head tipped back so his crest rested against the back of his cowl, sleeping in that way that made Liara feel a kink in her neck just looking at him, and not far off was Shepard, sprawled out across her stomach, head in her arms.

Except... except something was wrong.

Shepard's back, normally a pale, pinky beige colour, was _red_. Bright red.

The panic that shot down Liara spine was perfectly justified too, she had been well trained to fear that colour. Unlike asari, human blood was a bright, stark red. She had seen red blood before, humans weren't the only species with it, but she had never felt the same sort of bottomless dread that she felt when she saw purple staining the ground – until Shepard. It hadn't taken long for Liara to learn to fear seeing red covering her girlfriend. If Shepard was bleeding – and bleeding so badly – if something had happened in the hour or so that Liara's attentions were else were – no, she couldn't bear the thought.

“Shepard!” she called desperately, running up to the human who didn't so much as stir. “Shepard!” _Oh goddess, if she's unconscious, or... or_ _ **worse**_ _–_

“What are you _yelling_ about, T'soni?” Garrus grumbled, shifting as he woke.

“Something's wrong with Shepard,” Liara cried, dropping down to her knees.

She could hear the shocked noise Garrus made when he looked and saw the state of his commander next to him, but Liara didn't have time to spare him a thought. This close she could see that it wasn't blood splattering her – _thank the goddess_ – but it appeared to be the skin itself that had taken only the bloody hue. Reaching out, Liara grabbed Shepard's shoulders without thinking, giving her a shake, desperate for her to wake–

Shepard woke with a scream that sent daggers down Liara's gut. She did, however, recoil her hands, realizing too late her mistake – and horrified to see that in the moment she withdrew her hands the skin under where she had touched remained a sickly pale, nearly yellow colour before returning to its earlier red shade.

“Shepard?” Liara called, hovering desperately around her but afraid to reach out and touch again, “Shepard, speak to me! What's happened?”

Shepard was entirely caught up in her swearing though, some of which Liara's translator gave up even trying to adapt, but all of which Liara was familiar with at this point. The last time she'd heard Shepard swear like this she'd gotten her foot caught in a frag grenade explosion that had warped her armour and left Shepard's leg mangled and Shepard herself stuck in a medbay bed for over a week.

“Shepard, are you alright?” Garrus demanded, as he knelt down, trying to get a look at Shepard's face from where she had it pressed against her hands.

“Do I _fucking_ look okay, Vakarian? Oh of all the _pissing, miserable_ –”

Liara turned on Garrus instead. “What _happened_?” she asked desperately, but it was clear Garrus had no more idea than Liara did.

“Could it be some sort of infection? Venom?” he asked. “I know we've set up protection against wildlife, but if there was something that lives in the sand or the water that could have infected her–?”

“Surely EDI or Glyph would have said something if this area was known to have animals that are venomous to humans! This planet's hardly uncharted!”

“Look, you stay with her,” Garrus said, stumbling to his feet, “and I'll go get the others, maybe someone else knows what to do, one of the other humans...”

“Go,” was all Liara said, turning back to Shepard, reaching for the hand she had balled in the sand and taking it, praying it would be okay to hold since her lower arms didn't seem as red.

But goddess, the skin itself seemed to be radiating heat, like a fever. Did she have a fever? Liara was hardly the sort of doctor equipped to deal with medical emergencies, but even she had heard stories about infected battle wounds leaving their victims feverish and delusional before claiming the limb it had infected if you were lucky or the poor soul if you weren't.

If Shepard died now, after everything they had gone through–

She dropped her head towards the sand, where she had her hand tangled with Shepards, and squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't stand to see her lover's skin, her soft, delicate skin, looking like it had been flailed, colour so bright it seemed to glow in the sun, a visible cry of pain...

Of course, Liara was aware that Shepard would die before her, _centuries_ before her, that it was something that she would need to be prepared for, but it wasn't _fair_ , not when Liara should have _decades_ left with Shepard.

Especially if it had been her suggestion for shore leave that killed her. If her clinging to distant memories of her mother meant she would lose her present, her future...

“Oh for– Liara, are you _crying_? I'm the one in pain, why are _you_ crying?”

Liara blinked, and blinked again when it only made her teary eyes swim. Then she looked up to see Shepard's face, drawn and flushed but nothing like the red of her back.

“I'm not...” Liara sniffed and wiped the moisture from her face. She had to be strong right now. “It's going to be okay, Garrus has gone to get help, just stay still.”

“Garrus has gone to– oh don't tell me you two...”

And then Shepard was standing before Liara even had a chance to grab her and urge her to stay still. Before Shepard was able to stand fully though, Liara could see the skin of Shepard's face that wasn't flushed or freckled suddenly go a pasty white as she stumbled.

“Oh fuck, I don't feel...” And then Shepard was listing to the side; Liara was only just able to jump up in time to catch Shepard before she collapsed fully into the sand. Quickly she released Shepard, arranging her on her stomach which was still pale and not the angry red of her back, and removed her hands again as quickly as she could, fearful to touch Shepard more than she had to, especially when ever touch glowed briefly pale among the red like an accusation of the pain she was causing her girlfriend.

Shepard didn't respond again to Liara's soft calls – she had fainted entirely. From the fever Liara could feel coming from her back? From some deadly poison racing towards her heart or brain?

Finally – _finally_ – in what had probably not taken more than a couple minutes but had felt like hours in which she could do nothing but watching Shepard's face and cling to her unresponsive hand (she was helpless without Glyph to access her files, if only they were on the ship she might be able to help–) finally Garrus returned with the others in tow.

“T'Soni! What's happened to Skipper? Garrus said she might have been infected by–”

Liara, trying not to cry, looked up at Ashley who was leading the pack. She tried not to feel the guilt she knew she would feel when Ashley realized what was happening to Shepard while Liara sat here uselessly...

“Oh, _damn_ ,” said James, coming up behind behind Ashley. “That looks painful. I've never seen a burn that nasty.”

A burn? Shepard was burnt? But what could have done that? Memories of klaxen on Tuchanka flashed through her mind, and she imagined something like that creeping up on a defenceless Shepard as she lay sleeping, guards down, thinking she was safe, thinking her teammates would be able to keep them all safe while she took a much deserved rest...

“She fainted,” Liara heard herself explain as Ashley and James knelt next to her, trying to rouse her. Garrus and Tali stood back, the anxious way Tali twisted her hands perfectly mirroring the distressed set of Garrus's facial plates. Joker and EDI were also standing back, but they didn't seem as concerned as the other two. Maybe because Joker wasn't a field agent, maybe he didn't have the first hand experience of the horrors that could have attacked Shepard, or maybe he was just better at keeping his cool in emergency situations than Liara was.

“Must be the heat,” she heard James say. The heat of what? The heat had whatever burnt her? “Come on, we'd better get her back to the ship.”

“I'll get the shuttle going,” said Steve, running off as Ashley helped shove the still unresponsive Shepard onto James's back.

What if she never woke up again? Liara fretted silently as she followed behind them. She could see Garrus leaning down to talk to Ashley ahead of her, but she couldn't bring herself to ask what was going on. There was likely wasn't anything she could do, at least for now, and she didn't want to distract anyone from Shepard – she had done enough damage at this point without drawing attention away from Shepard when the goddess only knew what could befall her.

Getting back to the ship was a relief, if for no other reason than she immediately had access to the Normandy's extranet again and Glyph at her side to help her find some information, any information, about what could have done this. _This_ was her element, _this_ was how she could help. Even if she couldn't be the one to carry Shepard's body up from the beach, even if she couldn't be in the medbay without uselessly taking up space while Doctor Chakwas worked, even if all she was able to do on that beach was cry and hold Shepard's slack hand, _here_ she might just be able to help. So she frantically typed away at her omnitool while she paced back and forth in the mess hall, casting apprehensive looks back towards the medbay with its darkened windows; she saw James leave the medbay immediately after dropping Shepard off but didn't bother jumping him for answers – he would have likely left before Chakwas had even had a chance to examine Shepard. Ashley had remained in the room, so when she came out perhaps then Liara could have answers – until then, she would seek her own. So far though her research was not proving usefully. She'd searched the entire database of catalogued wildlife – from apex predators to airborne pollen – known to the planet but nothing was indicating that it could be expected to have this sort of result. Then again, most of the settlements were on the other side of the planet, on a completely different continent, perhaps all the native flora and fauna hadn't been documented yet. How could they have made such a careless mistake – how could _Liara_ had made such a careless mistake? And how could Shepard be allowed to suffer for it?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Ashley stepped out of the medbay and started towards the starboard observational deck, giving Liara a chance to leap from the mess hall seat she'd been restlessly perched in.

“How is she?” she demanded the second she was able to curl her fingers around Ashley's shoulder and stop her.

The expression Liara was met with was a rather bemused one, but Ashley answered. “Well, cranky, mostly.”

That was... not the sort of response that Liara was expecting. It wasn't wholly unexpected either, she supposed, Shepard was not a gracious patient, but she'd had expected a rather more... sombre prognosis.

“So she is... going to be okay?” Liara asked carefully. “She's going... She's not going to...”

“Well sure,” said Ashley, shrugging. “I mean, she's going to hurt like bitch for the next few days but it's not like she's going to drop down dead because of a sunburn.” Ashley stared at Liara for a moment and then her eyebrows began to rise, her face opening up in surprise. Rather amused surprise. “Did you think she was going to _die_?” Ashley asked, disbelieving.

Liara could feel her face heat up. “I didn't know what to expect,” she said defensively. “She fainted!”

“Yeah, I'lll admit that had me a little worried too, especially after the fuss you and Garrus were making, but what, do asari never get faint from too much sun?”

Well when it was put like that... “But her back... It was so...”

With a sigh, Ashley gave Liara's shoulder a reassuring pat. “Look, why don't you just go in and check on her yourself. I'm sure she'd welcome a distraction; you know what she's like in a hospital bed.”

“Thank you, I'll do just that.”

Despite Ashley's reassurance, stepping into the medbay Liara expected... something. All the terror that had been raging inside her hadn't yet dissipated and she felt wrong-footed she she saw Shepard sitting up on one of the beds with her legs dangling over the edge. Her swimsuit had been discarded and she now wore the loose pants of her fatigues, with her feet and torso still bare.

At the soft swoosh of the door, Shepard looked up and grimaced at Liara, the sort of expression she wore when James had succeed in cleaning her out at poker or when she'd managed to lose a piece of the gun she was putting back together. Inconvenienced, perhaps a little self-deprecating, but definitely not the face of someone who was on death's door.

“Shepard. How are you feeling?” Liara asked regardless, because she wouldn't rest until she'd heard from Shepard's own lips that everything was fine. ...Well, perhaps not until she'd heard from Doctor Chakwas' lips because Shepard had a bad habit of pressing into battle insisting she was perfectly fine while she was riddled with bullets and staggering with blood loss.

“Mostly embarrassed,” Shepard said. “Oh, and sore. Really fucking sore. Because I'm an idiot.”

“I hardly see how _fainting_ can be your fault,” said Liara gently. Fainting and... whatever was wrong with her back. “Sunburn” Ashley had called it. Did it have something to do with the planet's atmosphere? Perhaps it was caused from solar radiation, like on Palaven? But that could be incredibly dangerous, the planet had envirosuit warnings for a reason!

“Oh no, I think the commander feeling like a bit of an idiot is perfectly acceptable,” Chakwas said sternly, turning in her chair and crossing her arms. “Commander, I can only assume you weren't made ginger recently in some freak accident, so you should _know_ to take better care in the sun. Perhaps feeling a little idiotic will remind you to take the necessary precautions next time.”

Shepard rolled her eyes at Liara.

“I'm sorry,” said Liara, “but could you explain that to me? I'm not sure that translated right – what is 'ginger', exactly? Is it... treatable?”

Did Shepard have an underlying medical issue? One that made her susceptible to these sorts of burns? She hadn't heard anything about it, but Chakwas implied that it was something Shepard had been living with for a long time – years, presumably even before Liara had met Shepard. Honestly, she was feeling a little hurt that Shepard had never felt inclined to trust Liara with information like this. Because if there was any chance that Shepard could be helped, could be cured... then Liara would find it. She was the _Shadow Broker_. If she couldn't use that to help her friends, her _lover_ , then what was the point? And if that didn't work, if her resources couldn't tell her more about what it meant for a human to be ginger and weak to the sun, if they couldn't tell her how to fix it, then she still had contacts of her mother who moved in the scientific circles of asari culture and she could certainly reach out to them, people who would willingly help Benezia's daughter and her bondmate, even if they weren't official yet...

Her worries were cut short though by Shepard's amused snort.

“Unfortunately it's not treatable,” Shepard said. At Liara's concerned expression, Shepard placed her hand soothingly on Liara's arm. “It's just my hair colour.” Shepard gestured. “Like, blonde means people with yellow hair, brunette means people with brown hair, and ginger just means people with red hair. Like me.”

“And your hair colour affects whether or not you burn?” Liara asked, baffled.

“Not exactly,” Chakwas said. “The Commander's hair colour is, technically, a genetic mutation, and it makes it a rare hair colour among humans. However, the same mutation that causes the hair colour also causes decreased degrees of melanin in the skin making the Commander more susceptible to UV radiation from the sun. And therefore, to burning.”

“So this is _normal_?” Liara asked, gesturing to Shepard. “For all humans?”

“Well,” Shepard said with a grimace, looking at her red arms, “this is a little extreme. But yeah, it's pretty normally for humans to get sunburns. That's why we have sunscreen.”

Liara could recall seeing Ashley and James and Joker putting something on their bodies from where she and Shepard had been out in the water, but she hadn't really given it much thought. She hadn't seen Shepard put any on though, and if she was even more at risk than the rest of her human crew...

“Oh don't give me that look,” Shepard groaned at Liara. “It was an _accident_. I meant to put sunscreen on, but then it was so warm and I got sleepy...”

“And you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Liara exclaimed. “I didn't know what was happening, or if you'd be okay...” A realization suddenly struck her. “And you kept me waiting! If you were okay, why didn't you leave the medbay to let me _know_. I thought Chakwas must be in here, trying to treat you–” she exclaimed, swatting at Shepard.

Shepard gave a little cry of pain when Liara's hand slapped at her red arm, recoiling with a wounded expression.

“Be nice to me, I'm in pain, Liara. And I know soldiers tend to be pretty casual about personal boundaries, but going to find you outside of the medbay would still have probably required a shirt and you have no idea how much I _don't_ want to put on a shirt right now.”

“You may have to face that hurdle anyway, Commander,” Chakwas said. “There's nothing more I can help you with except to tell you to actually _remember_ to put on your burn cream to bring down swelling and get you healed up enough to wear a suit of armour again, so you may as well head back up to your cabin.”

Shepard groaned, but complied, standing shakily and reaching for the baggy shirt that had been left on the bed next to her. Liara found herself helping Shepard get it on over her head while she seemed to resist the need to actually lift her arms. Getting a good look at Shepard's back now, it still made Liara's stomach flop even if it wasn't apparently a grave danger. Instead of being simply red, it now had stark patches of white along it. She brushed on patch with a finger and it flaked beneath her touch, making Shepard flinch. Dead skin, she realized. Asari skin, composed of tiny, pliable scales, did shed on occasion but it was usually just small patches of outgrown scales that were easily brushed off – most asari who bathed at all regularly and took care of their skin would never have a problem with it. To her understanding, humans were similar. She knew they got dry skin that would flake off, not unlike asari scales, but nothing could have prepared her for Shepard's back right now. Huge swatches of skin were now draped off Shepard's back like cobwebs; she looked like she was going to crumble into pieces. Once the shirt was on though (with Shepard flinching at each tiny movement that caused the fabric to scrape against her back) the terrible wound was hidden besides for the redness of her still visible arms.

“Okay, let's go face the crew,” Shepard huffed, and began to shuffle out of the medbay.

“Are you sure you're feeling okay?” Liara asked, as Shepard staggered along, nothing like her normal, confident stride.

“Still a little dizzy. Chakwas gave me fluids but I should probably drink something once I get to my cabin.” She groaned when her arm brushed Liara's. “Like a whiskey.”

“I think not,” said Liara sternly. “I think you should put on Doctor Chakwas cream and lie down.”

Shepard huffed a sigh. “You're going to be an absolute mother hen about this, aren't you?”

Liara just raised a brow at Shepard in response. Grinning ruefully, Shepard's hand was once again in Liara's.

“I suppose that's fair,” she admitted. “Since I sort of ruined shore leave.”

“And scared me half to death.”

“ _And_ scared you half to death. Come on, let's go before Joker sees me, he'll never let me live it down.”

Liara had a feeling she would be feeling little pangs of guilt and horror at seeing her lover wince at every little movement, but at least she now knew she would be okay. That was a start. And hopefully her back would heal soon enough that she could convince Shepard too come up with a creative way to “apologize for ruining shore leave”. It would be okay. “Inter-species awkwardness” she'd heard Garrus had described it as once, though in the end it was just another day on the Normandy, nothing every quite like you'd expect or like. Still. It would be okay.

 


End file.
